A busy week in the ETF world saw the launch of the first vegan ETF, VEGN from Beyond Investing, which raised close to USD6 million on its first day of trading. We have an interview with Claire Smith, vegan entrepreneur and impact investor, on her ETF which focuses on companies that are environmentally and animal friendly, and conduct themselves in a humane manner.
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WisdomTree, reliably first out with an opinion on metals, has announced that silver has snapped out of its pessimistic period of early 2019 and may well be following on gold’s coat tails. WisdomTree’s Nitesh Shah has revised his Q2 2020 silver price forecast higher to USD17.05/oz and sees a strong tactical opportunity in silver in the near term.
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Thematic ETFs prove ever popular and ETFMG have taken the thematic theme to their collective hearts, as it were, with their launches which span marijuana, cybersecurity and video game technology. Four of their thematic ETFs are now available through the E*Trade platform commission free. Read our interview with ETFMG’s Robert Saffer to find out more.
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It’s August and we are back to gold as the key commodity story this year. But should we see that huge USD1.3 billion inflow into gold ETFs at WisdomTree as a worrying sign of recession on the horizon? Read our interview with WisdomTree’s Nitesh Shah to find out.
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This week’s ETF Express newsletter starts with an interview with New York Life Investments’ MacKay Municipal Managers’ David Dowden and John Lawlor who explain that the low risk profile, low correlation to other markets and, for US investors, the tax advantage, have all led to increased asset flows into muni ETFs.
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The top story, for the sake of the image alone this week, (yes, we are that shallow – it’s August), is the latest launch of a marijuana-based ETF. The medical and legal cannabis industry has shown exponential growth in north America, and Innovation Shares ETF’s newest launch seems to have caught that trend.
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“If you want to stay at the cutting edge and you are not using ETFs, you will be left behind,” says wealth manager AJ Bell’s head of passives Matt Brennan in an interview with ETF Express this week. Well, it doesn’t get clearer than that, and this from a firm that only moved over to ETFs within the last two years.
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